October 1st, 2012 | Comments Off on Grumpy Old Shopper 6 – ‘Management’

An article by Graham Ruddick about the state of the Tesco empire in the Sunday Telegraph business pages of 30 September 2012 began with the paragraph:
‘Philip Clarke, the chief executive of Tesco, is walking around one of the supermarket group’s stores in Essex with his UK management team.’
And that sums up what is wrong with Tesco these days and why they are unlikely to return to the high-power success they enjoyed for so long.
CEO walking round the store: brilliant. With his management team: pointless.
I Offered to Walk Him Round
A few weeks ago I wrote to Philip Clarke and offered to walk round my local store with him, unannounced. I did this more in sorrow than anger, as I have had a soft spot for the retailing giant for a long … Read entire article »

Under the guise of Olympic Games needs, Britain is set to ‘try’ unrestricted Sunday shop opening as an experiment. It may become permanent.
Shortly after the 2010 General Election, I wrote the following article, to raise awareness of how Sunday Trading laws would become a real problem for the then new Government. The 2012 Budget is likely to lead to a dry-run of abandoning laws for the summer, to enable Britain’s trading doors to be open 24/7,
Understandably, churches and campaigners for Sunday respite from relentless commercialism are opposed. It will be a hotly contested issue during 2012. The arguments rehearsed below are still relevant to the debate.
The April 2010 Article:
Britain’s new government will have competing priorities, from fiscal restraint and taxes to Afghanistan and immigration. However, there is another issue: should … Read entire article »

Most people have ambivalent, contradictory feelings ranging from love to hate about other people, things, places, sounds and smells. It’s part of life.
Some psychologists believe a love-hate relationship between couples, where conflict is used to strengthen love, is better than a straightforward one. Neil Warner, author of Turning Conflicts Into True love argues that people change, as ‘conflict is to help you learn the basic truth about how to deal with each other. It takes two to dispute, but only one to repair a relationship’.
The range of people’s love-hate relationships cover all aspects of life. For example, blogger Karen Fredricks has one with Amazon, not for books, but how it reviews non-book products.
Love-Hate Shopping and Style
Anna North, writes on Jezebel, a women’s opinion blog about keeping women from hating their … Read entire article »

I ought to explain my aversion to shopping. I was born and raised above my father’s shop, we were a retail family and I am proud of his success through hard work which helped to make me what I am today! One of my friends (one of three) has pointed out to me that with my background, my loathing of shopping is a mystery.
Well, what I dislike nowadays is not retail itself (essential part of our economy and enjoyed by millions and gives vital employment in difficult circumstances to millions more), but that it is made into a lifestyle, a religion, a culture in its own right and we are all expected to worship at the shrine.
Anyway, in the spirit of open-mindedness, I thought an ideal part-time little earner for … Read entire article »